akb1982 - photography editing website

Hi.. just introducing myself. i have a website which i had designed and created for photography editing and photobook business. i have had this site for nearly 3 years and its gets around 600-700 visits per month with minimal advertising. i am really looking for help on how i can get the right sort of people visiting my site or alternatively selling the site as most of business comes through word or mouth right now. This forum looks like it may have people on here who can help???

You say it is a website for "photography editing and photobook business" - can you expand a little on what your revenue model is? Is it like Shutterfly and other similar sites where you allow uploads and limited free editing with revenues from sales of photobooks? If so, what is your unique value proposition and who are your targeted customers?

hi David. what my website basically allows viewers to do is -upload their own photo's which are either professional or taken at home on a standard camera.I then offer the service of editing these images and designing a photobook/collage with those photos. The finished images are then uploaded back onto the site where the customer can view the edited images under their own profile and approve for printing. I have now also started to add Swarovski element crystals to my work to give it a unique selling point. unfortunately for some reason i cant get the right traffic to my site and most of my jobs comes from word of mouth. I hope this makes more sense.

Maybe you should try some paid advertising. You know how much a lead is worth to you, right? Try some Google Adwords and/or Facebook advertising campaigns to see if you can get the cost of acquiring a lead down to less than the value of the lead.

Thanks for taking a moment to introduce yourself. Here at EP, introductory posts are important as they help us get to know you and help our other members decide how much value they will place on your views and opinions.

We try to maintain a high level of quality information, and one way we do that is by following our forum rules (especially rule 3 our so-called "no fluff" rule) Our members put a lot of thought into their posts and I'm sure you'll do the same. We have very helpful members in our community, so feel free to ask questions in the appropriate forums. Who knows, another member might have the same questions you have.

Out of curiosity, how did you find us? Was it a web search, a referral by a friend, or something else? I originally came here when a friend who was already a member here told me about it.

As far as getting the right traffic to your site goes, who is your target audience? Are you looking for parents and grandparents who might not have the time and ability to do the editing and collaging themselves? Are you more interested in young professionals who might want to have a keepsake of their social life? Do you want to please avid vacationers who might want a tangible memory of the places they've been? Are there trends you can spot in your previous customers? (Do the photos themselves have a common theme?) The more you know about your buyers, the better you can cater to their needs and know how and where to promote to like-minded potential buyers. See if you can spot things like are your buyers mostly male or female? Do they seem to fit in a certain age range?

Once you have an idea who your "average buyer" is, you might be able to figure out how best to find more of the same. Like-minded people tend to congregate in the same places even online. Like the old saying goes, "Water seeks its own level". If you can identify those congregation points, you'll know the best places to invest your marketing efforts and hopefully increase sales. Our marketing forum might be a good place to ask some questions that will help you get the type of visitors you're looking for.

If you decide you prefer to sell your site, you should start in our due diligence and gotchas forum to know more of how to avoid being scammed. Either way, I wish you the best of luck! Please keep us posted with your progress.

I would like to create a website containing my portfolio. I'm into photography and thinking it might be a good idea to earn money from it. I'm no expert but I agree with petertdavis. You should probably get into paid advertising. There are lots around but the question is how?...

If you haven't done so already, set up a Facebook account for your business. You can show off some of your completed work there. Also, join and participate in Facebook groups that are local to the area you live in. Sometimes people ask for photography services in these groups. Or you can team up with photographers that don't know how to use the programs/services that offer.